| Chapter 376 |
| 2026 -- S 2195 SUBSTITUTE A AS AMENDED Enacted 06/22/2026 |
| A N A C T |
| RELATING TO COMMERCIAL LAW--GENERAL REGULATORY PROVISIONS -- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANION MODELS |
Introduced By: Senators Urso, Gu, DiPalma, Paolino, Zurier, Murray, and Appollonio |
| Date Introduced: January 23, 2026 |
| It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: |
| SECTION 1. Title 6 of the General Laws entitled "COMMERCIAL LAW — GENERAL |
| REGULATORY PROVISIONS" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter: |
| CHAPTER 63 |
| ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANION MODELS |
| 6-63-1. Definitions. |
| As used in this chapter: |
| (1)(i) "AI companion" means a system using artificial intelligence, generative artificial |
| intelligence, and/or emotional recognition algorithms to simulate a sustained human or human-like |
| relationship with a user by: |
| (A) Retaining information on prior interactions or user sessions and user preferences to |
| personalize the interaction and facilitate ongoing engagement with the AI companion; |
| (B) Asking unprompted or unsolicited emotion-based questions that go beyond a direct |
| response to a user prompt; and |
| (C) Sustaining an ongoing dialogue concerning matters personal to the user. |
| (ii)"AI companion" shall not include: |
| (A) Any system used by a business entity solely for customer service or to strictly provide |
| users with information about available commercial services or products provided by such entity, |
| customer service account information, or other information strictly related to its customer service; |
| (B) Any system that is primarily designed and marketed for providing efficiency |
| improvements or research or technical assistance; or |
| (C) Any system used by a business entity solely for internal purposes or employee |
| productivity. |
| (2) "AI model" means a component of an information system that implements artificial |
| intelligence technology and uses computational, statistical, or machine-learning techniques to |
| produce outputs from a given set of inputs. |
| (3) "Artificial intelligence", "artificial intelligence technology", or "AI" means a machine- |
| based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, |
| recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments. |
| (4) "Emotional recognition algorithms" means artificial intelligence that detects and |
| interprets human emotional signals in text (using natural language processing and sentiment |
| analysis), audio (using voice emotion AI), video (using facial movement analysis, gait analysis, or |
| physiological signals), or a combination thereof. |
| (5) "Generative artificial intelligence" means a class of AI models that are self-supervised |
| and emulate the structure and characteristics of input data to generate derived synthetic content |
| including, but not limited to, images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content. |
| (6) "Operator" means any person, partnership, association, firm, or business entity, or any |
| member, affiliate, subsidiary or beneficial owner of any partnership, association, firm, or business |
| entity who operates or provides an AI companion. |
| (7) "Person" means any natural person. |
| (8) "User" means any person who uses an AI companion within the state and who is not an |
| operator or agent or affiliate of the operator of the AI companion. |
| 6-63-2. Prohibitions and requirements. |
| (a) It shall be unlawful for any operator to operate or provide an AI companion to a user |
| unless such AI companion contains a protocol for addressing: |
| (1) Possible suicidal ideation or self-harm expressed by a user to the AI companion; |
| (2) Possible physical harm to others expressed by a user to the AI companion; and |
| (3) When any of those expressions are made, a notification shall be provided to the user |
| that refers them to crisis service providers such as a suicide hotline, crisis text line, or other |
| appropriate crisis services as soon as any of those expressions are detected. |
| (b) Beginning July 1, 2027, operators shall file annual reports with the office of the attorney |
| general which shall include the number of safety protocol activations and related metrics. The office |
| of the attorney general shall publish aggregated data on its website. |
| 6-63-3. Notifications required. |
| An operator shall provide a clear and conspicuous notification to a user at the beginning of |
| any AI companion interaction and at least every three (3) hours for continuing AI companion |
| interactions hereafter, which states either verbally or in writing that the user is not communicating |
| with a human. |
| 6-63-4. Enforcement. |
| (a) The attorney general shall be empowered to enforce this chapter, including the power |
| to investigate, sue, and seek injunctions against noncompliant AI companion operators for |
| violations of this chapter. |
| (b) Violations of this chapter may result in civil penalties up to fifteen thousand dollars |
| ($15,000) per day, with fines directed to suicide prevention programs. |
| 6-63-5. Severability. |
| If any provision of this chapter is declared unconstitutional or invalid, or the application of |
| any provision of this chapter to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the constitutionality of |
| the remainder of the chapter and its applicability to other persons and circumstances shall not be |
| affected thereby. |
| SECTION 2. This act shall take effect on January 1, 2027. |
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| LC003227/SUB A |
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